Image Enhancement
Bruce Upbin, 03.01.04
Who owns the right to put a famous photo on a Web site? Chances are it's a famous rich guy named Bill Gates
Bill Gates' grand scheme to license the world's art masterpieces and have them flash onto wall monitors in people's living rooms fizzled. But it looks as if he's going to make a pretty penny selling images after all--mostly images used by publishers and advertisers.
In November one of the world's biggest banks kicked off a major ad campaign in Asia, touting its ability to work closely with its richest clients. It wanted photos of famous partners in exploration:the Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, and Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay. So it turned to Corbis Inc., the world's second-largest image-licensing company, wholly owned by Gates.
Corbis had photos of these notables, which the bank could license for $18,000, but there was a hitch negotiating the celebrities' publicity rights:Armstrong was asking so much extra that the photography cost of the campaign would have been an astronomical $1.5 million. The client was ready to walk away, but Corbis' crafty rights negotiators suggested cropping out Armstrong altogether. That helped knock down the publicity rights fees to $185,000. Done.
